Eternal-owned food delivery platform Zomato has begun levying an additional charge on orders paid for in cash, adding another line item to a bill that already includes a platform fee, packaging charges and taxes.
The charge appears in the app’s bill summary as a “pay on delivery fee” and is levied only when customers choose to pay in cash at the time of delivery. It is typically Rs 5, although some users have been charged Rs 7 and, in some cases, as much as Rs 20. Customers paying online are not charged the fee.
The charge is separate from Zomato’s Rs 14.99 platform fee per order, restaurant packaging charges and GST. Zomato did not respond to queries on the new charge. Rival Swiggy has not introduced a similar fee.
Food delivery platforms began introducing per-order consumer charges in 2023, when Swiggy started testing a Rs 2 platform fee, followed by Zomato. Zomato has raised the fee in stages since then, most recently to Rs 14.99 from Rs 12.50 earlier this year.
At Zomato’s scale, even a small charge can translate into significant revenue. The platform processes an estimated 2.3-2.5 million food orders a day. A Rs 5 charge on every order would amount to Rs 1.15-1.25 crore a day, or roughly Rs 420-456 crore annually. The actual contribution, however, would be a fraction of this, as cash orders account for only a portion of total volumes.
The move comes at a time when competition in food delivery is intensifying. Rapido’s Ownly has been gaining traction, Flipkart is piloting its Eat In offering, while Swish has raised fresh funding, adding pressure on the two incumbent platforms.